"...In some areas, the amount of radium detected in drinking water was 2,000 percent higher than the legal limit, according to E.P.A. data.

But federal regulators fined or punished fewer than 8 percent of water systems that violated the arsenic and radioactive standards. The E.P.A., in a statement, said that in a majority of situations, state regulators used informal methods — like providing technical assistance — to help systems that had violated the rules.

But many systems remained out of compliance, even after aid was offered, according to E.P.A. data. And for over a quarter of systems that violated the arsenic or radioactivity standards, there is no record that they were ever contacted by a regulator, even after they sent in paperwork revealing their violations.

Those figures are particularly worrisome, say researchers, because the Safe Drinking Water Act’s limits on arsenic are so weak to begin with. A system could deliver tap water that puts residents at a 1-in-600 risk of developing bladder cancer from arsenic, and still comply with the law.

Despite the expected announcement of reforms, some mid-level E.P.A. regulators say they are skeptical that any change will occur.

“The same people who told us to ignore Safe Drinking Water Act violations are still running the divisions,” said one mid-level E.P.A. official. “There’s no accountability, and so nothing’s going to change.”"

I believe I seconded it when you brought it up. Seconded for a second time. A must watch.

I really liked Flow. But when it got to the US tap water stuff (i.e. the stuff in this thread) it seemed really petty. Not the Michigan stuff, the other stuff where it was like "we have one ten-thousandth of a lethal dose of ______ in our tap water" meanwhile the rest of the film is about people with no fucking water.

Thu Dec 10, 2009 7:03 am

Charlie Foxtrot

Joined: 23 Jan 2008
Posts: 1379
Location: Rochester, NY

I honestly don't even remember that part of the movie. I was just upping it in general.

Thu Dec 10, 2009 12:10 pm

AdamBomb

Joined: 05 Mar 2004
Posts: 3183
Location: Louisiana

icarus502 wrote:

Charlie Foxtrot wrote:

AdamBomb wrote: I've mentioned this before, please watch this film called FLOW.

I believe I seconded it when you brought it up. Seconded for a second time. A must watch.

I really liked Flow. But when it got to the US tap water stuff (i.e. the stuff in this thread) it seemed really petty. Not the Michigan stuff, the other stuff where it was like "we have one ten-thousandth of a lethal dose of ______ in our tap water" meanwhile the rest of the film is about people with no fucking water.

True, Icarus. Our problems seem petty in comparison with these coutries where the people travel miles just to fetch buckets of water from an illegal tap. I think it's noteworthy that we are supposed to be the country with the high standard of life, but our bureaucracy finds a way to fuck that over when it comes to something as simple as water. Its angering, really. I think the film did a good job displaying how the globalization of water leads to governments using water as a tool to control people. Why are we in the US immune to this possibility when we already have no control now?

Thu Dec 10, 2009 12:21 pm

Dr Sagacious

Joined: 01 Mar 2009
Posts: 1842
Location: Redford

Every person has the right to clean water. People who have no water, or have to take mile(s) long treks to get water have it worse, no doubt. But it's still wrong to subject people to radiation or contamination because of lazy underenforced laws.

i cant remember what its called but ive had the privilege to drink some really high quality spring water bottled in glass a few times, though i could never afford that stuff regularly. its like 3+ dollars a bottle. that stuff was incredible, i cant describe it, it just tasted so pure. its unbelievable what clean water actually tastes like. it made me realize how important it really is, it was soooo good, however i felt like an asshole drinking that stuff cause i know theres a huge amount of people who have no access to even half-way decent water. disturbing.

Last edited by sparrow on Thu Sep 16, 2010 10:23 pm; edited 1 time in total

Thu Dec 10, 2009 10:32 pm

BandiniWIZARD APPRENTICE

Joined: 01 Jul 2002
Posts: 4669
Location: jerk city

Part of me worries that reports like this will cause unnecessary fear in folks who respond by switching to bottled water, in turn burning more fossil fuels and contributing to climate change, which is having a devastating impact on water supplies in some of the poorest regions in the world. But at the same time, we need to know what is in our water and make sure it is safe, and that doesn't seem to be what's happening here.

Fri Dec 11, 2009 12:52 am

ander

Joined: 17 Oct 2009
Posts: 28
Location: minneapolis

SUR, water filtration, SUR.

can't sift out uranium, shit![/i]

Fri Dec 11, 2009 1:01 am

breakfast

Joined: 04 Oct 2006
Posts: 2897

There have been a lot of instances in which water previously thought to be clean has become classified as dirty as our ability to detect trace amounts of a chemical becomes more sensitive. But in those situations, the newly detected chemicals were well below quantities that could cause harm or predisposition to disease.
That doesn't seem to be the case here, but it's a fun aside.

Reporting from Washington â€”
When Peter Devereaux arrived at Camp Lejeune in December 1980, he had no idea that officials were looking into unsafe levels of toxic chemicals in the drinking water.

As a Marine stationed at the sprawling military base along the North Carolina shore, Devereaux said, he led a healthy lifestyle. When he was diagnosed in early 2008 with a rare disease â€” male breast cancer â€” Devereaux did not connect his illness to Camp Lejeune.

But six months after he'd had his left breast and 22 cancerous lymph nodes removed, he received a letter from the Department of the Navy informing him that in the 1980s, "unregulated chemicals were discovered" in the drinking water at the camp's Hadnot Point water distribution system.

Drinking water in various areas of the camp had been contaminated with trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene â€” chemicals used to clean metals and dry-clean clothes â€” and benzene, a chemical found in fuel. All are believed to cause cancer.

Tests in 1980 first suggested the presence of contaminants. More than four years later, base officials shut down 10 wells, including one contaminated with benzene at Hadnot Point.

Devereaux, who left Lejeune in April 1982, wonders why it took the Marines more than two decades to inform him of his exposure to the carcinogen.

"It would have made a tremendous difference in my life," Devereaux said. He would have sought regular cancer screenings that might have caught the cancer earlier.

Instead, Devereaux, 48, learned three months after his diagnosis that the cancer had spread to his spine, ribs and hip. Devereaux's doctors tell him the average life expectancy for people with metastatic breast cancer is two to three years.

On Thursday, Devereaux and two others who think their cancer is linked to Camp Lejeune testified before Congress about the 30-year effort to convince the Marine Corps to fully disclose the extent that the contaminated water may have caused cancer in hundreds of members of the military, their families and other civilians, and to compensate the victims.

"I believe it is time that the Department of the Navy and U.S. Marine Corps stop fighting these efforts and focus their energies on taking care of their own now and in the future," said Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.), chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee's subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight.

Maj. Gen. Eugene G. Payne Jr., until recently the Marine officer in charge of facilities, acknowledged that the Marine Corps had handled the issue poorly.

"It is astounding some of the things that have happened," Payne testified. "I think we were lulled into a sense of complacency or a lack of urgencyâ€¦. There are many things that I would have done differently."

Payne said the Marine Corps was "deeply concerned" about people who had been sickened but stopped short of declaring the military responsible for the illnesses. In his written testimony, he said scientific studies were underway to determine whether there was a link.

As a veteran, Devereaux is entitled to full coverage for his healthcare expenses, but civilians in the same position are not.

"The Marines knew about it and said nothing, knowing full well we were bathing in and drinking contaminated water on a daily basis," Devereaux said. "The water reports state that the wells were contaminated and action needed to be taken, and nothing was done."